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 Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow private
imports of COVID-19 vaccines, has already received a batch of the
Russian Sputnik vaccine.
"We expect the first 10,000 doses to come on March 25, and 100,000
next month and 200,000 the month after," said Hassan Abbas, an
official of AJ Pharma, CanSino's local partner, which will be
importing the vaccine.
“The issues with pricing have been worked out with the government
and now we are waiting for a notification.”
The vaccine's commercial name will be "Convidecia", Abbas said,
adding that five hospitals that ran its clinical trials will provide
its doses for sale.
Pakistan is in the process of vaccinating frontline healthcare
workers and citizens over the age of 60 free of charge using
Sinopharm doses donated by China.
The commercial administration of vaccines is yet to begin as the
government settles pricing issues, after reversing its decision to
allow uncapped prices.
The government has approved a mechanism to fix open market prices
for the vaccines, according to a health ministry summary seen by
Reuters.
The summary proposed a price of 8,449 rupees ($54.30) per pack of
two injections of the Russian vaccine and 4,225 ($27.15) per
injection for the Chinese Convidecia.
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 The prices have been capped on
the basis of the approved mechanism, it said.
However, the minister in charge of COVID
operations, Asad Umar, told a local TV channel
that according to the mechanism, the trade price
for an imported vaccine will add 40% mark up in
the landed cost, with another 15% for retailers
or hospitals.
CanSino Biologics and Pakistan's Health Minister
Faisal Sultan did not immediately respond to
requests for comment.
Pakistan is experiencing a sharp rise in
COVID-19 infections, reporting on Saturday the
highest number of positive cases in a day since
July.
(Additional reporting by Roxanne Liu in Beijing;
Editing by Lincoln Feast and Ed Osmond)
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